Two of Bligh Tanner’s notable projects recently received recognition at the Australian Institute of Architects Awards. The UQ Fitness and Aquatic Centre in Gatton (Architectus) received a regional commendation at the 2012 Darling Downs Regional Architecture Awards. The Mt Isa Royal Flying Doctor Service Base (Architectural Practice Academy) was awarded a regional commendation and the Walter and Oliver Turnbridge Award for Building of the Year at the North Queensland Awards in March. Both projects will enter the state competition later in the year.

The new Practical Wisdom building at Mt Maria College, Mitchelton marks the completion of stage 1 of the master plan re-development of the site which will combine two school campuses in one location and provide additional year 7 accommodation.

The building comprises a mixture of 2 and 3 storey structure maximising the natural ground levels and slope across the site. A blend of exposed concrete slab soffits, brickwork piers, galvanised steel columns and the warm tones of hardwood screen battens create an ordered, crisp and contemporary facade. All of this sits confidently beside the Hennessey and Hennessey heritage listed former home.

Paul's role is to lead a small technical team to the poverty stricken rural town of Lospalos (about 240km east of the capital Dili) to begin the process of establishing a site and preliminary design for the construction of a community centre. The team leaves 3rd February and will be in East Timor for 10 days.

Best practice environmental design is a significant objective along with the transfer of skills and knowledge. Community involvement is critical to the project's success. The design must maximize the use of local materials, cultural heritage and skills as well as re-use of existing structures.

While the first phase is primarily an information gathering exercise it is critical in ensuring community consultation is embedded in the design. On their return, the team will develop a design for the centre.

While this is the first project undertaken with MHI, it is hoped that we can establish an ongoing relationship that will provide future opportunities for more Bligh Tanner staff across all our disciplines.

Bligh Tanner has recently been involved in community work in the Cape York Peninsula, working with Balkanu, an Aboriginal corporation which focuses on economic development for Cape York indigenous people. Following initial involvement with designing shelters for the Mossman Gorge Gateway project, we were asked to provide structural engineering design for the Bush Owner Builder houses.

The Bush Owner Builder project (BOB) aims to support people in remote indigenous communities who wish to build their own houses on their homelands. The houses are to be built with the assistance of trained staff who would supervise and pass on necessary building skills to the future owners. The materials used in the construction of the houses were selected to reflect local climate, culture and availability.

The self-built houses are intended to create a sense of ownership and pride, instilling a greater sense of community and promoting natural leadership motivated by a desire to reconnect with the land. This project will help to solve an overcrowded accommodation problem as well as creating assets for future generations of indigenous people. The skills learned from the construction of the houses can be reused and passed on.

The project design phase involved a collaboration between a young Architect in Melbourne, Balkanu, a retired builder who was assisting with the milling of local timber and Bligh Tanner. The houses were designed incorporating a large canopy roof with living platform and a lock up room beneath. Being very open and lightweight, bracing of the structures proved a challenge especially with cyclonic conditions. The structures were design to be durable, relatively easy to build and with flexibility for extension. 

Balkanu has made an offer for Bligh Tanner staff to visit construction sites and to assist with the construction process as a way of gaining practical experience and to develop the relationship with communities on the Cape.

The BT website has undergone an impressive transformation and we’re delighted with the result. The site features new content, a fresh design and easier navigation. The newsfeed feature will allow us to post regular updates which we hope to be informative and interesting.

A big thankyou to Peter and Ashley from Entica Design, Al James from Al et al, Paul from SeeSaw Photography, and Dave and the team from QMG for putting it all together.

Bligh Tanner is committed to engaging in Building Information Modelling (BIM) projects. After using Revit for drawing co-ordination and clash detection on projects such as Our Lady of the Southern Cross College and the Kia Showroom Development, we are now engaging in full BIM projects such as the Goddard Building Expansion.

The Goddard Building Expansion project involves detailed clash detection (3D). The quantity surveyor extracts information from the structural model to assist in cost planning (4D) and the integration of the project construction programme into the model (5D). Our work on the Goddard Building has already yielded rewards, with the quantity surveyor providing valuable collaborative input into the way we construct our Revit content.

For us, BIM is about finding exciting new ways to work collaboratively with architects to deliver high quality design and documentation. While this can be challenging, the rewards are improved (and earlier) design solutions, better workflow and better teamwork.

As part of our Building Information Modelling process we have developed a matrix which allows clients to choose the type of modelling they require for their particular project. The matrix clearly defines the three stages of development of our typical Civil and Structural BIM model, and what is and isn’t modelled throughout the process.